Only connect

Here are some writing and reading ideas which are about making connections.

Below is a 'word wall' (as in the TV programme, 'Only Connect'). In the 16 words are hidden 4 'groups' of words.

The first task is to separate the words into 4 groups/categories of 4 different words. There will be deliberate overlaps, but only one solution which uses all 16 words.

The second task is to explain what unifies each of the 4 groups/categories.

You might also make your own 'word wall' - about characters from a novel(s), or from related ideas, or from related usages or patterns of language. The NWP Whodunit writing group did this as an 'ice-breaker' before using a 'list of four' either as a stimulus for thought before writing, a starting point for writing or as a destination for a short piece of writing. (You might also be interested to use such an exercise to sort and shape ideas before writing, in the way described by Garth Nix - click on button above.)